Оглавление
Barry Tomalin. Effective Meetings in 7 simple steps
Contents
Step 1. ORGANISE PEOPLE, PLACES AND TIMES
Five ways to succeed
Five ways to fail
Limit the number of meetings
Types of meetings
Tribal gatherings
Weekly or monthly updates
Performance reviews
Brainstorms
General meetings
Shorter meetings
Other meetings
Office or elsewhere?
Meeting room organisation and layout
Boardroom
Circle
Horseshoe
Cabaret
Theatre
Facing rows
Meeting room layouts
How does this apply to you?
Key take-aways
Step 2. PREPARE USEFUL DOCUMENTS
Five ways to succeed
Five ways to fail
The invitation
Sounding pro: Meeting invitations
Requesting items for inclusion
Types of meeting
Agendas – what to include
Details of meeting, date, time, location
Participants
Apologies for absence
Minutes of last meeting
Agenda items
AOB (Any Other Business)
Date of the next meeting
Sounding pro: Agendas
Management Meeting
Present
Apologies
AGENDA
Date of next meeting
Organising discussion documents
Preparing discussion documents
Sounding pro: Executive summary
New business opportunities
Who should take the minutes?
How to take the minutes
Sounding pro: Minutes
Finalising the minutes
Who circulates the minutes?
Key take-aways
Step 3. PARTICIPATE WITH IMPACT
Five ways to succeed
Five ways to fail
Tone of voice
Feelings
Body language
The words
The Mehrabian experiment
Checking information
Presenting an agenda item
Contributing to a discussion
Creating space
How to interrupt
Interrupting with respect
How to catch the meeting leader’s eye
Asking a question
Adding a new point
Exchanging some information
Disagreeing
How to avoid making enemies
Separate the person from the problem
Keep calm
Put yourself in their shoes
Make personal contact after the meeting
If necessary, apologise
How to follow up a meeting
Say ‘Thank you’
Sounding pro
Key take-aways
Step 4. HOST VIRTUAL MEETINGS
Five ways to succeed
Five ways to fail
Via telephone
Via video
Variations in technology
Successful virtual meetings
Before the conference call. Check your equipment
Lobby
During the conference call
Open microphone
Dead air
Background noise
Heavy breathing
Video-conferencing
Online meetings
Video-conference room
Telepresence room
The future
Virtual meetings via video
Sounding pro: Post-meeting follow-up
Sounding pro
Key take-aways
Step 5. USE INFORMAL MEETINGS WISELY
Five ways to succeed
Five ways to fail
Canvass opinion
Test the water
Lobby support
Ask for and give advice
CEO coffee
Check-in
Just a quiet word …
Drop-in meetings
Receiving feedback in an informal meeting
Strategies for responding to informal feedback
Do I need a record?
Sounding pro: Follow-up email to check action agreed
How to give informal advice
Recovering from a ‘car crash’ meeting
Informal meetings audit – assess your performance
Sounding pro
Key take-aways
Step 6. ADAPT TO MEETING DYNAMICS
Five ways to succeed
Five ways to fail
The three meeting leader styles
The good leader
The advantages and disadvantages of each style
Moderating one’s role
Assess the dynamics
Time
Topic
Temperament
Starting the meeting
Guiding the meeting
Keeping to time
Summarising key action points
Checking the minutes are taken
Avoiding or dealing with disagreement effectively
Dealing with unscheduled events
Transitions
How to summarise a discussion
Assess and clarify what is agreed
Confirm what has been agreed and minute accurately
Controlling the procedure
Controlling the discussion
The seven stages of control
Dealing with talkative participants
The tender tactic: interrupt, thank, continue
The tough tactic: interrupt, stop, continue
Encouraging quiet participants to contribute
Facilities
Participants
Sounding pro
Key take-aways
Step 7. RUN EFFICIENT, EFFECTIVE MEETINGS
Five ways to succeed
Five ways to fail
Exchange of information
Survey of opinions
Action to be taken
Responsibilities to be taken
The pre-meeting
1 Call to order
2 Welcome and greet participants
3 Apologies for absence
4 Nominate someone to take the minutes
5 Check any agenda changes
6 Check minutes received and matters arising
7 Sign the minutes
8 Today’s agenda
Today’s agenda
1 Agenda items
2 Final summing up
3 AOB (Any Other Business)
4 Date of next meeting
A word about tradition
Sounding pro
The pre-meeting
Today’s agenda
The follow-up stages
Stage 1: Finalising the minutes
Stage 2: Circulating the minutes
Chasing up the action points
Creating the virtuous circle
The meeting leader
The participants
Why failure to norm matters
How to control the process
Key take-aways
If you enjoyed Effective Meetings, check out these other great Business Skills in 7 Simple Steps titles
About the Author
Copyright
